In Amazonas, the “Connected Schools” program will bring internet to 3,600 educational institutions

Connectivity

The federal program will promote access to fast internet in more than 138 thousand schools, based on an investment of R$8.8 billion

Manaus (AM) – The Federal Government announced this Tuesday (26) an initiative to universalize quality connectivity in public basic education institutions by 2026. In a partnership between the Ministries of Education (MEC) and Communications (MCom), Escolas Conectadas will promote access to fast internet in more than 138 thousand schools, based on an investment of R$8.8 billion.

In Amazonas, the challenge is to guarantee access to quality internet in 3,640 educational institutions, 72% of the 5,084 public basic education schools in the state. Currently, Amazonians have 1,444 schools with access to fixed fiber optic broadband. Another challenge is ensuring Wi-Fi connection, which will involve 4,141 public educational institutions in the state.

“The education of our children and young people cannot wait. We have to do a lot of work to recover these children’s ability to learn again. With quality internet in all schools, poor people’s children will have the same quality of education as rich people’s children”,

said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In addition to the need to bring internet to the school environment, the intention is to ensure that this access is of quality and verified. The goal is to guarantee a fiber optic or satellite connection with a speed of at least 1 Mbps per student. In Amazonas, there are more than 1 million enrollments in basic education.

At the moment, information from the Federal Government indicates that the state has 52 schools with monitored and adequate internet speed. Another 514 have internet with monitored speed, but of insufficient quality. But 4,518 schools do not have any type of monitoring.

For schools that do not have access to electricity or that only have access to electricity from fossil generators (in Amazonas there are 1,514 school units in this condition), connection to the public energy network or photovoltaic generators will be made possible.

Axes

The National Strategy for Connected Schools is divided into four axes: implementing high-speed internet access network infrastructure; ensure internet access with adequate speed; installation of Wi-Fi networks in schools; and electricity supply.

“We will contribute to digital learning and improving school management. Teachers will be able to use pedagogical resources to better teach content and students will be included in the digital world we live in today. The Federal Government will invest heavily so that all public schools in this country have very high quality internet”,

says the Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho.

The Northeast is the region with the largest number of schools that will have quality internet, totaling 49,953 institutions. Next is the Southeast, with 40,365 schools; the North, with 20,366; the South, with 19,826 education units; and the Central-West, with 7,845 institutions.

Investments

R$8.8 billion will be invested in actions related to Connected Schools. Of the total, R$6.5 billion comes from the “Digital Inclusion and Connectivity” axis of the New PAC, which will be allocated to the implementation of internet connection and internal networks in schools. The resources come from four sources: the 5G Auction, the Telecommunications Services Universalization Fund (Fust), the Connected Education Innovation Program (PIEC) and the Law 14,172 of 2021.

The additional R$2.3 billion comes from three sources: R$1.7 billion from Law 14,172/2021; R$350 million from PIEC; and R$250 million from the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT).

*With information from consultancy

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